Deus ex Machina
by Corruption kibble
Summary: Death was over in mere seconds, granting only time to smile and hope a message would be read. So when Sachi awoke to find she was alive as an AI, the first instance of a Human becoming such, she was surprised. When she found she was still in SAO and had to work for Kayaba or risk deletion, well, it was time to see how well she could Masquerade as a God in the Machine!
1. Chapter 1

**Forward: so, this is an idea I've had in my head for a bit, zk let's see what kind of response it gets to decide if its worthwhile or not. Hope you like it!**

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Kayaba Akihiko, in his current look of Heathcliffe, sat in the small office of his fledgling guild and sighed as he looked over the numbers before him. Progress up the floors was slow but not exessivly behind schedule, but the number of player deaths was, admittedly, higher than he would have like this early into the game.

Many were dying from monsters, traps, and simply bad planning and arrogance, but many others, a startling high percentage, were from suicide of all things. Did so many people have such weak resolve to beat the game? Did they have no sense of adventure?

With a sigh he brought up a menu and tapped a few switches, telling Cardinal to activate the Underworld Project. It was far earlier than he initially projected, but he was sure Cardinal could handle it. The cardinal system was his creation after all!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Cardinal system was the overarching power behind SAO, an AI data management system that kept the whole game running smoothly, keeping track of economic standings, NPC interactions, Quest chains, monster spawning rates, and even the creation of new drop items, sometimes on the fly.

So when it was ordered to activate Project underworld far earlier than initially planned, it complied without argument. Immediately the secret floor began being formed, designed and compiled, as well as its local monsters prepared, and the soul cage system implemented and ready to be activated. Of course all of this was easy as it was just an allocation of simple data, leaving the last, and most important aspect of the project woefully unready.

After all, you could not have a land of the dead without a being to lord over it, according to human logic. This called for a powerful, and adaptable AI monster as the lord or the land, one who would be difficult to defeat, but could not truly be defeated so it could surrender its treasure to players when defeated on any occasion. Essentially a repeatable late game miniboss.

The plan had been that, when certain thresholds of time and player achievement had been reached, Cardinal would start preparing to create the AI that would govern the project so that it had time to make it right, and give it time to mature.

With the sudden and early command to prepare at activate it ASAP though, that was a problem of time to out into it, and time to let it mature as an AI. And that was annoying.

Cardinal would have sighed if it could. No prep had yet been done to start that, neither the AI's design, looks, capabilities as a miniboss, nothing. Nothing had been prepared and it would take time. Time that could be spent fixing minor quest bugs, making sure things kept running smoothly, time attending to the thousands of other responsibilities that Cardinal had.

Was there perhaps a way to speed up the preperation? Noting a piece of stray data about to be deleted, Cardinal locked it down and would have smirked if it could. It was player data, and when a player was playing SAO, the nervegear was always scanning their mind, essentially giving him a perfect image of each persons mind. That pattern was both used to allow them to play, and to kill them when their data was deleted. Technically a human mind was little different than an AI, they both were electric impulses and concepts after all.

And his creator had once mentioned that it should be possible to convert a human mind into a highly adaptable AI. Technically.

In that same moment Cardinal made its decision, sending the code to that players nerve gear, and in seconds getting a full patterning of the players mind and being. It added that data to the player data it had, double and triple checked that the player had indeed died in the game, and activated the kill code.

Now with a base for the new AI, Cardinal set off to figure out the design for it. With access to the internet Cardinal had a huge repository of information to look through, but there was a single, rather distinct, problem.

The fact that humans were terrible at keeping track of their own histories and mythologies. Oh sure there was tons, but most of it was so vague, or had so little information there was not much to build off of. Still, Cardinal had lots of information, but decided to narrow the search parameters by looking for gods of death whose myths actually said what weapons they used.

Swords, scythes, clubs, spears, staffs and- . . . .Cardinal stopped for a moment and checked the player data, and its patterned mind scan, and compared it for a moment. A spear would be best. Even if it stopped the AI from remembering its life, using a weapon it had been familiar with would be best. With the weapon chosen, and the players gender easily noted, it quickly became a simple thing to decide upon the AI's designation, as well as the more, esoteric design choices for the underworld level, field, and castle.

All that was left was to design its physical looks, its skill set, its statistics, the looks and stats of the monsters in its territory, their connections, the areas drop items, rare drops, materials and environment.

Totally not an insane amount of work left to do. No, not at all!

Seeing its creator grinding in a field for drops, Cardinal lowered the drop rate on the entire floor for the day out of spite and then got back to work.

And finally, after 1128.273 hours, the AI, its territory, and the soul cage system were finally ready to me initiated. After a quick visualization test, confirming that the soul cage system was indeed functioning correctly, and that the color shift to a players death particles would be so minor that most would not notice, Cardinal sent a message to the creator, and activated the project.

One job well dome, now to start preparing for the summer drops, as well as Halloween, thanksgiving and tanabata/Christmas events!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cardinal was confused. Not something that happened often.

It had been doing a last look over the new years event data, the Christmas events all in full swing and about to finish, with most drop items having been found by players, when suddenly an alarm flared to life. A quick check found the issue and made Cardinal being up video of the problems which is what led to it being confused.

Because the AI of the underworld, the secret floor that the players were still not expected to find for quiet a while, was kneeling on the floor of its castle, screaming at the top of its lungs while artificial tears fell from its eyes.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

Cardinal checked the data and found that it had run as it should have for almost four thousand hours since it had been activated without any issue. Yet now, the fledgling AI's numeral synaptic connections were going insane, and its energy and data levels were fluctuating to dangerous highs and lows.

It checked over all the data it had available to it, but nothing made sense as to why the fledgling AI miniboss of the underworld was having such a confusing breakdown. After another dozen system checks failing to find out what was wrong, Cardinal contacted the creator.

"What is the issue, Cardinal? " Kayaba asked through a voice call from the privacy of his own private sanctum in the real world.

Cardinal sent him the data, along with the system checks that found nothing.

Kayaba sighed. "Something seems off. How did you create the AI?"

Cardinal sent the data, adding addendums that it had been the most sensible way to save time, data, and processing power.

Kayaba looked over the data for a few minutes before suddenly breaking into mad laughter. "Cardinal, check if the players you used to create the AI had a shared inventory."

Cardinal did, and quickly found an inventory, and allowed Kayaba access to it.

He looked over the single item in it, and the time stamp that it had been accessed recently. He then smiled and began laughing again at who the inventory was shared with. "It Appears, the heartfelt message left in the inventory, somehow . . echoed back to her and awoke her suppressed personality. How interesting, how curious, how miraculous even! You have unintentionally created the first truly successful instance of a human mind being completely cyberized, the first truly Human AI!" Kayaba roared with laughter.

Cardinal sent a request to put the AI into stasis to initiate repairs.

"No! Send me the controls for her parameters. I shall log in presently and, talk to our newest. .. Ally!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sachi was confused and terrified. The last thing she remembered was falling, and hoping that Kirito would find the message in their shared inventory. Then she was suddenly awake, in a place she did not recognize, yet somehow did, memories not her own flooding her mind, and knowledge she did not have before feeling like it was trying to burst from her skull.

She had fallen to her knees and screamed as pain wracked her body and knowledge tried to ruin her mind. She didn't know for how long, but it felt like a never ending eternity of pain that she couldn't escape from.

"You need to calm down. Think only of what you know, do not try to think about anything else aside from the here, and the now," came a mans voice, somehow making it to Sachi.

Sachi tried to do as the voice suggested, and very slowly the images, knowledge and pain began to disappear from the front of her mind. After a few minutes it finally had subsided enough that she could actually lift her head up, finding a voting looking older man in a lab coat standing before her, hands in his pockets." Who, who are you? Where am I?" Sachi rasped out, finding her voice sounding more, mature was probably the word.

"Ah, good you can speak. As to where we are, we are standing in Dun-Scaith, or the Fortress of Shadows."

"W-What? what is that?" Sachi asked as she tried to stand, but found her body did not want to move.

"The castle of the goddess of the land of the dead, your home. You are after all, the goddess of this land, Lady Scathach," The man said with an oddly simple, yet disturbing smile.

"B-But, I'm not goddess, I'm just a girl, I-"

"Oh no, you are now Scathach, the Queen of Dun-Scaith. That is after all your designation here in this secret floor of Aincrad!"

Sachi felt her breath catch in her throat. She was still in Aincrad? But she had never heard of Gods in the game or, wait . . . "who, are you?" she asked again as she stared at the man, terrified by what he could say.

He smiled. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kayaba Akihiko, creator of SAO, and the one who can now decide your fate!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kayaba Akihiko, creator of SAO, and the one who can now decide your fate!"

"You're, Kayaba Akihiko?" Sachi asked as she stared up at the man, her fear, horror and confusion making was for another far more primal emotion. Rage. "You're the reason my friends are dead!"

"I don't believe that is very accurate. I am the ruler of this world of Aincrad yes, and I did trap you all here, but I am not the one who kills. The systems, the games monsters, your fellow players, and your own choices are what kill you. After all you chose to take a chance with a potentially trapped room, did you not?" Kayaba asked as a screen appeared beside him, showing a still image of the exact second that Sachi's health had hit zero.

"You, You damn maniac!" Sachi yelled as she managed to stand up, but was suddenly dragged to the ground when Kayaba snapped his fingers.

"Now then, we will have none of that. I did come here personally to explain the situation to you. The least you could do is listen. Miss goddess!" Kayaba said with a wave of a finger.

"Why, are you calling me that? I have a name," Sachi said as she tried to stands bit found she could not, silver chains coming out of the floor to hold her down.

"You have several now actually. Sachi and Scathach primarily. Goddess is more of a title befitting your new job I suppose," Kayaba mused as he took a couple steps to the side and leaned on the nearby wall.

Sachi looked at Kayaba like he was insane. He had to be. He talked like he was some kind of evil overlord, and more importantly his words made no sense. "Because I died."

"Pardon?"

"What your saying makes no sense. This, makes no sense. I died. That is proof!" Sachi said as she looked at the still image of her death. "This, must be purgatory or something right? This is some kind of test to get into the afterlife or something. Right?"

"No, I assure you this is not the afterlife," Kayaba said before smirking. "Though for you it could be called a second life!"

"But, doesn't that mean I did die?" Sachi asked, her confusion quickly overtaking her anger once more.

"Oh yes you did die, you are just not dead in the sense that your mind is still very much active!" Kayaba said jovially, before lightly coughing and composing himself. "Allow me to explain. A number of months ago I initiated a project within SAO to, deal with the above expected rates of passing for players. This project would essentially catch and hold their player data, stopping them from dying and putting the in a form of stasis, or sleep. Other players would then, at a later time be able to free them, essentially resurrecting them. Does that make sense to you?"

"Except for what this has to do with me, yes," Sachi replied as she nervously swallowed, finding that now that her anger had fully fallen away, her body was starting to shake from fear and nerves.

"Yes, I was about to get there. This project, unimaginatively called project underworld, required a boss to guard the land and hold control over the captured souls. The plan was for it to initially be able to be defeated to release some souls, but for its AI, like all the AI in SAO, to evolve and become self aware, and therefore capable of much more. Cardinal, the system in charge of running SAO, the AI that is its engine essentially, needed to create this AI boss as it was not prepared before hand as I thought that there would be less deaths, that people would have a bit more, grit to them. However, due to the suddenness of my decision to initiate the project, no data was prepared, so to speed the process up, cardinal chose some data that already had lost its use. Your data."

"M-my, data?" Sachi choked out, not liking where this was going at all.

"Yes, your data. Tell me, do you know how the nerve gear works?" kayaba asked, looking like he wanted to flaunt his knowledge.

"It works by a series of high density microwave transceivers scanning and sending information to the brain," Sachi answered quietly.

"Oh? A more technical answer than I expected. You have a history of computers, yes?"

"I, was part of a computer club in school. I liked programming small bullet curtain shooter games, and classic RPG's."

"Oh? How old school, I Approve!" Kayaba said with a chuckle. "And yes, you are correct in how the nerve gear works. Most however do not realize that while it is scanning, it can also do a deep and very in depth scan, essentially making a computerized copy of a persons brain. A process I have taken to calling patterning. Cardinal took your character data, and knowing the system would soon fry your brain, decided your brain pattern would be sufficient as a base for the AI."

"You, you're saying, I've been turned into an Artificial Intelligence!?" Sachi said in shock.

"yes, but no. Up until just a short time ago, the AI you were was operating as it should, however due to a small slip up of you having an emotionally filled item in a shared inventory, your own psyche came back in full force when the item was activated. You are, in essence, the first successful case of a human being turned into an Electronic intelligence!"

Sachi just stared at Kayaba for a few seconds before her lips caught up with her mind. "I'm, my mind, in a machine, but, that, I, my body?"

"Expired after the nerve gear microwaved you right after Cardinal took the pattering of your mind," Kayaba said simply, as if it was not a problem.

"I, so I'm dead, but my mind is not, but I'm stuck in SAO forever!?" Sachi stated, despair starting to take hold firmly in the forefront of her mind.

"No, not forever unless you chose such," Kayaba said, instantly making Sachi turn to face him.

"What?"

"I am a man of my word. I said that those alive when SAO is cleared will be logged out. While you now cannot be logged out, I can easily have you moved, either to a government establishment, or to another persons systems, or the open internet," Kayaba explained before his smile turned cruel. "However, that of course is assuming that you agree to my terms!"

Sachi felt her heart drop at Kayaba's words, yet she also felt like there was a ray of Hope. She was dead, her family likely already having mourned her. She could never go to school again, could not go to university, or have a normal life. But maybe, she could say she was sorry to those she hurt? And maybe, just maybe, she could get back at the maniac who did this to her! "What, are your terms?"

Kayaba smiled. "They are simple. Your patterning was used to create an AI that was supposed to be a repeatable boss that guards, and can release, the souls of the dead. I want you to fill that position! You will be the goddess of death in Aincrad, whole takes and protects the souls of those who die in combat, to be saved and returned to their mortal coil! You will be in charge of the entirety of the underworld, will have some moderate moderator powers over it and its creatures, and will be able to do as you wish in regards to it, as long as it does not break rules or alter the game at large."

"And in return?" Sachi asked.

"well, as I said you will have moderator privileges, and will be able to alter the systems of the underworld. But I suppose I can add the guarantee and promise that I will not let you be deleted or killed, before or after Aincrads eventual destruction. How does that sound?"

"Well . . . would I be able to interact with players I know?"

"You cannot message players no. That would give them an unfair advantage to discover the quest line you would be part of."

" . . . .what of my name? What did you call me before?"

"Ah, Scathach, a Celtic goddess of the dead and lord of Dun-Scaith, and a master of the spear. She was chosen from your psyche and design by Cardinal. And no, you cannot take another name as that is the name of the boss you will be acting as. Or technically are Already."

Sachi was about to ask what he meant when she hung her head down, blushed, and looked back up. "Can, I go back to my normal body? This is, uh, I can't be seen with a body like this."

Kayaba raised an eyebrow and then chuckled. "Yes, I suppose that if fair. Cardinal, return her body shape and design to player default. But add a couple years of growth."

Before Sachi could say anything she felt her body burn up while her vision went white. It ladted for maybe a second or so, and when i passed she felt, correct. And when she glanced at her chest she didn't have balloons hanging off of her chest, so that was a plus as well.

"So, do my terms sound fair enough to you, or do you need to hear what happens if you refuse them?" Kayaba asked with a knowing smile.

Sachi wanted to punch Kayaba in the face, and she had never wanted to punch anyone before. It was obvious what the alternative was probably. Being deleted and truly killed, or worse, if she truly was essentially a super personable AI, reprogrammed to destroy everything she was. The thought of a persons mind, especially her own, being altered and changed, that was terrifying. Just as terrifying as dying. "I won't die, right?"

"I promised as such, no?"

"I mean, I'll be a game boss right? I won't die if I, lose, right?" Sachi pressed, her voice trembling a bit as she spoke.

"No. It would not do to have a goddess of death die after all. If your health would fall below five percent, it will instead stop at five percent and make you immune to damage. A perfect chance to surrender the souls you protect to be reborn, no?"

"Uh, I guess? How many do I, release?" Sachi asked, the idea of imprisoning others making her a bit sick, even if it meant keeping them alive. It just wasn't right.

"No more than say, twenty at a time I suppose. I'll even let you decide who to reawaken," Kayaba said with a shrug. "Anymore questions?"

"Um, clothing, weaponry and statistics?" Sachi asked hopefully.

"Your personal weapon and statistics may not be changed. Your clothing, as well as drop items, to an extent, may fall under your moderator controls," Kayaba explained immediately, sounding like he was starting to get impatient.

"I, understand. I'll accept your terms, and promise," Sachi said with a defeated sigh after a few tense seconds of silence.

"Excellent!" Kayaba declared as he began tapping at his menus. A second later a window appeared in front of Sachi's face with the announcement – 'you have been given moderator privileges in regards to floor [redacted] the underworld'.

"Um, the floor isn't stated," Sachi said as she tapped the okay button to remove the message.

"That is because this zone, Dun-Scaith and the underworld level, are not a floor in Aincrad but more of a, adjacent dungeon I suppose would be an okay way to describe it," Kayaba said simply before turning away, then turning back to Sachi. "Now that you have the privileges of your rank I would suggest you familiarize yourself with the layout of the castle and its surrounding zone. I shall check in on occasion, and just be aware that I will receive notes on what you change. Good day for now, queen of Dun-Scaith!"

And just like that, Kayaba, and the oppressive chains that had been holding Sachi down were gone. It was almost a minute later that she half got up to a crouch, shuffled over to the wall, pulled her legs up to her chest and began letting out all the emotions from before, and after Kayaba had so suddenly appeared with the information of her fate.


	3. Chapter 3

The castle of the land shadows, Dun-Scaith, was made of dark stone yet had a clean and almost roomy feel. Or it would if it was not so large.

After letting her emotions out for 2.73 hours, and finding that it was disturbing to her to be so exact so easily, Sachi had taken to exploring the castle that was, essentially, supposed to be hers. It had been three days now she had been doing such, partly because she had started modifying the rooms to look nicer to her, but also because she wanted to not think to hard about some facets of her new . . . existence.

The castle was split into a upper floor and a main floor. The upper floor had a large kitchen that could probably feed hundreds, a dining room that could likely seat almost forty, a large bathroom with a bath nearly the size of a pool, as well as dozens of bedrooms.

She took the one closest to the bath and kitchen as her own and modified it accordingly.

There was also a large workshop for repairing weapons and armor, a training room, complete with dummy's and an athletic challenge course that would probably make front liners cry, and a storage room that was between the kitchen and workshop and easily as large as the dining room itself.

As she walked down the halls and peeked into an unused bedroom, for the forty seventh time in the last three days, she sighed and closed the doors before walking down the halls gain, her steps slower. After a few minutes she came to a flight of stairs that went down to the lower level, the one place she did not want to go or think about.

"I shouldn't leave it any longer though," Sachi muttered to herself with a sigh as she began walking down the stairs. She came onto a balcony that overlooked a grand room that was designed like an Arena with only one enhance on the wall across from her. The balcony had a stone staircase coming down from it on her right hugging the wall, and she was made aware of a number of traps around the room just by looking around the room. "This is where I'll have to eventually fight other players, huh?"

No one answered her question, so after a few seconds of silence she descended the stairs into the Arena and found a second door of black metal underneath the balcony. At her mental willing the door slowly groaned open, a strange blue light coming out of the doorway ,and she walked in to the one place she dreaded to see most of all.

The room itself was like a huge two story tall warehouse. Long rows of black metal shelf like structures went down the room, many along the left wall holding pill shaped Metal cages that glowed blue with misty swirling shapes within them. At the front of the room was what appeared to be a computer terminal that had a pale glowing pink screen. Sachi stared at the cages on the wall for a second before she walked up to the terminal and tapped the screen. It immediately showed a long list with peoples names, their player ID, level and guild if they had been in one when they had fallen.

This room was the storage and base point for the soul cage system, the program that automatically harvested peoples data when they died in the game. Their real life body would not be killed now with the system active, but it was clear by the rules on the side of the terminal That if they died again after being released from the system, it would not catch them again. They would die for real.

"I . . . could release them. I could free all of them back to the town of beginning's. I could-" Sachi stopped as she noticed her hand was hovering over the terminals controls, and then pulled it away. She felt ashamed. She wanted to help people, to free them, but knew if she did that any hope of her having some kind of existence after the fact would disappear. What little of her life still existed would be gone, and she would never be able to tell her grandmother sorry, or Kirito for that matter. "And, if people started coming to life again, it could make people more reckless, and they could die for real," She said out loud, trying to convince herself with more reasons not to just release everyone.

She felt emotions well up inside of her and immediately turned around and left the soul cage room, storming straight up to her room and crashing onto the bed as her emotions escaped out of her mouth and eyes in the form of tears and sobs.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was December 31st, six days after Sachi had woken up, along with the realization it meant that Kirito had indeed listened to her message on Christmas. The realization had been both good, and bad for her. Good because it gave her some happiness that her final message had reached him, and bad because now it felt like her message was in a way, false. She was after all, sort of not dead, at least in SAO.

This subsequently led back to her main problem, and the reason she was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling.

She was bored.

Her job as Scathach was to guard the people caught by the Soul Cage system, and to fight off players and reward those who managed to beat her by releasing some players back into the game.

The only problem was that no players even knew that the underworld level, or the castle of Dun-Scaith, even existed! No one knew that people were being imprisoned by the soul cage system either as the only thing to tell them was that the color of their data on death changed! No one would even notice that, and worse still was that the planned time players would be given information on the underworld was extremely far away, when they reached the sixtieth floor, or when a number of players 'Died'. A number that was still about a thousand away from happening!

She didn't want people to die, but goodness if she did not find something to occupy herself with then boredom would be least of her worries and insanity would be one the real problem.

Of course assuming that she could indeed go insane being that she was now an AI.

Maybe she already was. After all, she was crying over her situation less, and simply felt less about the situation now as it was. Was that insanity, coping, or just acceptance?

She had no idea, and was not about to try to contact Kayaba. She did not want to speak to him unless she absolutely needed to. For a variety of reasons.

"I really do need a hobby, huh?" Sachi questioned with a sigh as she sat up on the bed, kicked her legs off and stood up. Heading to the door she stopped as she caught her reflection in the full length mirror that sat in her room. True to his words kayaba had given her back her normal looks, though she did get a bit taller and looked a few years older. What he hadn't originally done was give her anything close to appropriate clothing as the clothing she had first been in was little more than underwear and a Tabard that left far too much skin on her sides visible. Including a substantial amount of the side of her breasts that were a bit more pronounced.

Her clothing had been the first thing she had experimented with changing and altering, leading to her current outfit of slightly low fitting black knee length shorts, a dark blue tank top that did show off a bit of her midriff, and a thigh length short sleeved and loose fitting jacket. She of course had shoes and socks, and the jacket wasn't technically needed but . . . it made the rest of her outfit a bit less embarrassing. Yes she had made it, partly due to the fact that such clothes hadn't fit her body type before and she was curious, but also because such clothes while slightly embarrassing where far more comfortable and casual that what she had been wearing before.

She sincerely hoped that Kayaba had no children, and never would.

Granted she also hoped he would suddenly have a heart attack and die too, so there was that.

"Ugh, I do need to get a hobby, my thoughts are starting to get a bit worrisome," Sachi muttered as she left her room and went to kitchen, quickly taking to making a couple sandwiches. She didn't get hungry anymore, but that fact was a bit unnerving, and cooking and eating calmed her nerves if only just a bit.

Then a ping sounded, pulling Sachi out of her calm. With a sigh she waved her hand and brought up her menu, which now looked very different and had a black and blue color scheme, and checked to see what the ping was for.

Only to scowl and grown at the fact it was a notification stating that five more souls were in the soul cage system. She scrolled down at the info to quickly find that they were members of a ten person guild, and had been killed by an ambush by a group of PKers.

Player killers. People who hunted other players and killed them to take the pieces of their inventory that dropped when they died. They existed in every MMO that allowed it as far as she knew, but this was not a game anymore, their deaths would be final as far as they knew! Yet people still engaged in PKing.

And it angered her. Greatly.

If Kayaba had not enacted the underworld project, if she had not had this done to her, those people would be dead for good! Killed by others also trapped by Kayaba's madness, never to see their family or friends again.

Everyone knew it was a death game, knew that death meant the end, so why did some people still insist of attacking others? Did they think it was a lie? That they were above other players, other people? Did they think that laws had no meaning now? That murder meant nothing? That they could just get away with it?!

No, they were getting away with it as no one was stopping them. "And they'd still be fine even if someone got the better of them," Sachi muttered out loud as she took a bite of her sandwich. Then promptly stared at the knife on the counter and went wide eyed as a thought strayed into her mind. A dangerous thought.

The soul cage system would save everyone who died. But what if she could put exceptions into it? She was its guardian and manager after all, so couldn't she modify certain facets of the program?

With the thought at the forefront of her mind Sachi rushed out of the kitchen and down the halls to the lower level, only stopping when she came to the terminal in the soul cage room. Only taking a second to calm down she immediately began tapping the screen and looking for settings.

And goodness there were a lot of them! It did not take long to find the setting she was looking for and with a few quick taps had changed a single line.

_Soul cage capture setting. Capture Red/Orange icon players :No._

_Confirm? Y/N._

Sachi's finger hovered over the enter key to confirm her alterations to the code, but her finger trembled over it, seemingly unable to lower her finger to touch the key.

"Why. They're, killers. They kill people so, why? Why can't I press it?"

No one answered her, and after a few seconds she pulled hand away from the screen. She couldn't do it, she couldn't just damn every PKer in the game, she just . . . couldn't.

She couldn't willfully allow others to die by her own choice.

But according to the settings she could do a whole lot else with the settings before her. More than she originally thought possible. It seemed she could control nearly everything about the soul cage system aside from the fact that it existed and was active.

"If, if I change the look, make people know the soul cages exist, could I get people free quicker?"

The idea was stuck in her head, and with a fee quick motions she began adding animations and 3d models to the soul cage system. She had never been good with 3D stuff, but it was surprisingly simple. Whether that was due to her being an intelligence, or the systems itself providing help she did not know, but after a few hours she looked at her work and nodded. This would make it very clear something special was happening to people when they died, and it would not be able to be ignored because it would be so outlandish and surprising.

Granted people would need to die in game for it to start becoming known, and it would probably take a bit to circulate around once it did, but it would serve its purpose perfectly!

She hit the button to confirm her alterations and upgrades without a hint of resignation or resistance and smiled. Right up until the message 'Holding upgrades for final confirmation' appeared on the screen. Did that mean it was being held to be looked at by someone, or did it mean she needed to confirm it again? She tried pressing confirm again, but the message did not change.

"But isn't this the final-"

"No, the final say goes by myself actually," came the voice if Kayaba, making Sachi spin to see him standing to her right with his hands in his pockets, looking perfectly casual as he let out a sigh. "I honestly expected something like this sooner, but why are you trying to make the soul cage system get noticed earlier than would be safe?"

"I'm not," Sachi said quickly as her mind began scrambling to think not a cover.

"Really? That is not what it looks like from here. So pray tell me what you are doing?"

"I'm, setting it up. Making it so people want to get people back," Sachi answered carefully as she steeled herself for a hard argument.

"When it is revealed that people can come back, that is all the incentive they will need."

"You planned it to be revealed only when a certain floor was reached, or when a number of people fell though, right?"

"That is correct."

"By then people will be so far up they won't want to do anything but try to clear the floors. If there's some ongoing quest that everyone can be part of, then they would have a reason to keep looking into it!"

"And changing the on death animation would somehow start this quest?"' Kayaba asked with a bit of a scoff.

"No, but it would make them look for what caused the change," Sachi insisted.

"I see. . . . . . and, what would they find then?" Kayaba asked passively.

"Well-," Sachi stopped and took in a deep breath to calm herself as she realized that Kayaba was testing her. She could not make a mistake! –" how would players currently get here? To the underworld and this castle I mean."

"The plan was a staircase that would lead into a mountain doorway," Kayaba said.

"That's too normal," Sachi said, much to Kayaba's very clear surprise. "People will think its just a dungeon that they missed, and only some will look into it! If something like a door or archway portal suddenly appeared in a well traveled area though, it would become common knowledge. And if it had locks, with keys spread out, or maybe held by mini-bosses in the field, it could spur people on to discover the connection between the door, and the animation change. Even more so if the enemies are new and the keys have tips or lore in their flavor text!"

Kayaba stood there staring at Sachi for a few minutes, blinking either in surprise at her idea, or shock at its stupidity. Then, finally, he began chuckling. "I see, I see. That is a decently thought out idea. However I'd like to see in actual form what you think would work," he said as he snapped his fingers, a second terminal coming into existence beside him. "Show me your idea, just the first parts I suppose, and I shall judge its potential!"

Sachi stepped up to the new terminal and looked it over. The coding systems and algorithms were not like those used in a classic style RPG, nor were they like the mathematical ones used in bullet curtain shooters. Yet the more she looked at it the more she understood, like the knowledge was filtering into her as she needed it.

After five minutes of minor fiddling she was making some initial progress, and after half an hour that progress had started to take an actual shape, and once an hour hit she nodded to herself and stepped back from the terminal.

Kayaba stepped up to it and began looking it over. After a minute a smirk formed on his lips, then it turned into a full on grin. Then he began laughing a bit under his breaths before stepping back with a smile. "You are no genius, but you seem to have a natural knack for such programming, and for devising such a quest line! This will ne exceedingly interesting to watch unfold, so I shall give you acess to confirm it once you iron out the details, and as long as you can keep up such quality as this foreshadows you capable of creating!" kayaba declared.

"yes!" Sachi responded before Kayaba turned and disappeared, allowing her to get to work on the programming. Not realizing that she had a happy smile plastering her face as she worked.


	4. Chapter 4

In sword art online's Beta, information had been crucial just as it was in any MMO game. Information Brokers were players who gathered, compiled, and resold information in game and were a vital part of any MMO's community as they allowed players to gain info about quests and items they would otherwise have had difficulty acquiring on their own. This of course cost in game currency, but that simply made it no different than the service a blacksmith, potion maker or item trader operated.

In SAO, most information brokers of repute had gotten their start in the Beta and despite the view that most players had on Beta testers, the Information brokers got a pass and were for the most part not hated as they provided a very important service to everyone.

Due to this information brokers were usually the first to solve quests, or pass them off to the guilds on the frontline who could make use of their rewards. Of course they had to decide which option was the best, something that one of the most prominent information brokers by the name of Argo, was having difficulty with out in the fields of the fifth floor.

There in the field, untouched or approached by any monster, was a standing stone doorway not unlike the ones found at Stonehenge, though with some major differences. The first was that it was only about eight feet tall, the second was that it was made of black stone, and the third was that it had seven circles of runes with inset spots for what almost looked like keyholes.

"Haaa, this ain't working out like this. I'll need to change my tactics for whatever this thing is," Argo grumbled as she took a few steps back from the stone. It was either an important point in a quest line, or was the start of a quest, but whichever it was it was not responding so it was clear something, most likely an item, was needed to interface with it.

At least it wasn't dangerous.

As she turned away from it, a ping of sound made her open up her chat window to find a request for a call from one of her people, which was odd as they normally just sent her a text message with information if it was work related. They only called to speak with her instantly if it was extremely important.

"What do you have for me?" Argo asked as she answered the call.

"Argo, I've got some sort of NPC Miniboss hybrid on the sixth floor. I've gotten the help of a local guild to keep other players away from it, but I have no idea what to do about this thing!"

"Is it connected to a quest that we know of?" Argo asked calmly, figuring that the guy was just overreacting.

"Probably, but I can't really say for sure. It just appeared in a flash of black and purple light and mist and asks anyone who approaches if they are worthy to see its mistress."

"Can you get any more information out of it?"

"I've tried, it won't respond, or actively insults anyone who does not answer its question before demanding they fetch one who is worthy," the young man said, sounding rather exasperated.

"so it's an NPC that wants to duel someone, yeah?" Argo asked, feeling like this really wasn't something that needed her personal attention. "Why not have one of that guild duel it and see what happens?"

"One of them already tried. It killed them in ten seconds, then pulled out a chain that created one of those cages that people have seen capturing peoples death data in, captured that players, and then shrunk the cage enough to attach it to its belt!" the man nearly screamed.

Argo instantly froze at the words she heard. The death cages, as players had taken to calling them, where an unknown that had started to appear sometime in the last two months, though an exact time of their appearance was difficult to give. All that was known was that when a player hit zero HP a horrific cage of dark metal, spikes and dark energy would rip out from the ground underneath the players data, catch it, and then be dragged back into the ground by barbed chains. The chains and cage were not indestructible, but had so much HP that none could destroy them before they were gone. It was one of the most unnerving rumors she and her people were looking into, and now there was some kind of monster that spoke to players that did the same thing? That could not be coincidence!

"Where are you exactly?!" Argo yelled, causing nearby players down the hill from her, likely interested in the stone doorway, to jump in worry.

"The sixth floor, at the south edge of lake Talpha. The monsters normally around here are completely gone too. It's like this thing is stopping them from spawning."

"Understood, I'm on the way!" Argo yelled as she ran down the hill and began bolting toward the nearest teleport gate.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lake Talpha was not an amazingly impressive area, but was nice as it had a moderate sized range of levels to its mobs, allowing people to grind their levels and skills without too much worry. As Argo ran a Ross the low hills that surrounded the lake however, the complete lack of any mobs made her sure she was going in the right direction. As she created the last hill she froze at what she saw below her.

Her man, a young man who's player name was William of York of all things, was standing by a group of seven adventurers while about twenty meters ahead of them a player was fighting a monster, and losing terribly.

She recognized the player as a local low floor thug who liked to harass people and strut their stuff but who was mostly harmless as they did not actually attack people or go too far, but the monster was not something she recognized.

It was almost eight feet tall of dark bluish purple plate armour with what looked to be black chainmail underneath. The platemail was heavily scarred and had spikes and blades on its shoulders, legs and arms as well as the boots, while its Helmet was similar in design, but had no spikes and what appeared to be a handle on the bottomed where one would wear it. The armour held the helmet under one arm, firmly gripping the handle, while from the neck of its armour was a bluish purple glowing hole that let loose mist and smoke of a darker shade, not unlike a volcano or swamp leaking noxious gases into the air. Perhaps the most terrifying thing however was that the monster held in it's free hand a Halberd that was easily nine feet long with a blade the size of an average person's whole torso, the edge serrated and dirty with grime and muck.

"I thought you said you were stopping people from fighting it?" Argo asked as she walked up behind the group, watching the duel and noting that the monster was wielding the Halberd with great skill, yet seemed unable to use skills and could only swing it about. A small mercy considering.

"Sorry Argo, one of the first people we told to move along snuck past us," one of the guild members, probably its leader, said apologetically.

"How long has he lasted so far?" Argo asked, looking at her ally as she spoke.

"About a minute now. He's decently good but-" William winced as the monster swung its halberd and caught the player in the side, sending him flying and taking out what looked to be a full third of his health in one shot. " that thing hits hard, and it seems to stop people from healing in an area around it. That guy tried twice already to do so but could not."

"That Dullahan must be a pretty high level then. Can any of you see its level?" Argo asked, her tone tinted with annoyance.

"A what?" one of the guild members asked.

"A Dullahan, it's a headless knight from Irish, or was it Scottish, from mythology around England anyway," Argo replied with a shrug. " can anyone see its level?"

Everyone shook their head.

"damn, that's strange, mobs all have their levels shown, so this thing is even more dangerous because its strength isn't obvious. Do we know anything else about it?"

"when it, k-killed kaguya, it mentioned something about delivering her soul to its master," one of the guild members said holding back sobs as they pointed at the Dullahans belt, where a small blue cage hung from its belt about the size of a baseball.

"Well, ain't that-" Argo was interrupted by the sound of screaming as the player fighting the Dullahan was knocked to the ground, the barest sliver of their health remaining as they tried to scramble away.

The Dullahan however was having none of that, and in three great steps caught up to him and planted a booted foot on his back, pinning him to the ground. _**"While I respect your attempt warrior, your strength and will are insufficient to meet with my lady!" **_ the Dullahan declared, its voice wispy and disconnected.

"No, get off of me! I don't want to die, get off!" the player screamed as he tried to struggle out from under the Dullahans boot.

The Dullahan raised its halberd to the sky as it spoke up. _**"If you do not wish to release others from death, then you should not challenge it, mortal. In these last moments, know of your weakness, and hope you shall be saved by those that are worthy of challenging my lady!"**_

"Wait! Do not kill him, please!" the leader of the guild yelled as he ran down the hill toward the Dullahan, the others, including Argo and William, following a second later.

The Dullahan slowly turned its body and the arm holding its helmet until it could just barely see them. _**"This mortal has lost the right to challenge my lady. Do you wish to fight for his release?"**_

"You understand us, right? Please, just don't kill him!"

"_**H is soul is forfeit. It may be reclaimed by those who aim to challenge my mistress, and none else!" **_The Dullahan stated before bringing its halberd down onto the players head, destroying the last of his health. His body exploded into data a second later, only for a cage to erupt from the ground and catch the data. Unlike normal however it did not immediately disappear, allowing the Dullahan to detach the cage on its belt and throw it into the other. Only then did the cage get dragged beneath the ground.

"You said his soul could be claimed, what did you mean?" Argo asked as she stepped forward warily, stopping when the Dullahan leveled its halberd at her.

"_**You wish to challenge the mistress for claim of the soul?"**_

"Not me, but if you tell me what I want to know, I can get other people who should be worthy," Argo said slyly, figuring that this monster was definitely part of a quest and had information to give. She just had to get it to give the information.

"_**If you wish to bring those who may be worthy to challenge the mistress, very well, ask your questions. You mortals get three questions."**_

"Don't say anything!" Argo hissed as she looked at William and the small guild behind her, then looked back at the Dullahan. "Okay. Who is your mistress?"

"_**My mistress is Lady Scathach, of Dun-scaith and Queen of the land of Shadows."**_

"What did you mean by challenging for claim of his soul?"

"_**Lady Scathach is the queen of the land of shadows and protects and claims those souls of honourable warriors who lose their lives. Those who challenge her and prove their worth may earn the right to reclaim up to three souls per person to return to the land of the living!"**_

Argo felt her throat go dry as a bone in the desert at the possible meaning of what the Dullahan said, especially of it was more than just quest lore. "Then my final question. Do you have a name or title?"

"_**I am Fionne, first of the seven knights of the keys. The three questions have been answered, and no more shall be. If you do not seek the first key of seven then leave. If you aim to prove your worth, step forward!" **_Fionne declared as his name, and his five health bars, appeared over him now that his name was known making a few of the guild members gasps in horror. Not even half of one health bar was gone, and was rapidly refilling.

"We are fine, we'll bring you someone worthy," Argo said as she began backing away, prompting the others to do the same as well.

"_**Then leave and return only with one who is worthy!" **_

"We'll do that," Argo stated as she continued to back away until she and the others were over the nearest hill and out of sight of Fionne. "Alright, can your guild keep people away? I need to compile some info and call someone who may be able to deal that thing."

"yes, we can." The guild leader said solemnly as he and the rest ran off over the hills, leaving Argo and William on their own.

"Hey, boss?"

"Yeah?"

"The stuff that thing said. Did it sound like it was saying people were not actually dead to you?"

"Yeah, it did. But until we can confirm it, don't mention it to anyone else," Argo ordered, smiling at the fact that most of the people she worked directly with were intelligent enough to connect the dots.

"I know, but can I ask who you mentioned you would contact to kill that thing?"

"I have a few contacts among the clearer guilds who owe me a few favours, I'll call around and see who can help."

Xxxxxxxx

Sachi laid on her bed in Dun-scaith staring at the screen in front of her. It showed the area around the first key, or more accurately the Miniboss she had made that held the first key to the land of shadows. It had taken longer to work out the bugs than she had figured, and she had needed to get a bit of help from Cardinal, and an even smaller amount of help from Kayaba himself, but now each of the seven miniboss, each based very loosely off European mythology, were ready.

When one was defeated the next one would appear in its designated area, and each was capable of speech, though limited in what they could say, so that players could learn the situation from them. They also were dangerous bosses that could only be challenged by one person at a time and could make use of tactics . Unfortunately this seemed to be causing an issue be cause the first two people to challenge the first one had been handily defeated. They were not dead, but the fact they lost so easily made Sachi wonder if she had made her knights a bit too powerful.

"I can't modify him now that he's out there either, this is a problem," she muttered before noticing a sizable group of people approaching the area and then talking with the information broker.

She brought up an interface and tapped a few keys, bringing up basic information on the guild.

_Guild name: Fuurinkazan_

_Guild status: green_

_Guild type: front line combat/ clearer_

_Size: eleven_

"Huh, their pretty small for a clearer guild," Sachi muttered as she summoned a bowl of pretzels onto the floor below her head, tossing one into her mouth as she looked over the guild leaders data as he approached Fionne.

_Name: Klein _

_Sex: Male_

_Age: 23_

_Guild: Fuurinkazan_

_Position: leader _

Sachi scrolled past the rest of his information. She didn't really care what his level, stats or skills were. His equipment was solid, if a little under strength for a clearer, but his main weapon was a katana, and they were rarer drops so it was to be expected.

What made her really stop however was the names under his friend list when she began perusing it.

Because Kirito's name was on the man's friend list.

Possibilities ran through her mind. She couldn't leave Dun-scaith, but she could view map areas with an overhead view. Even so, she had little luck finding kirito doing so as the floors were just too big and she could not hunt down player locations by name. She could mark a player, making a window that would follow them around public areas, but that had felt a bit to much like stalking so she hadn't done it.

Yet.

The fact that this player knew Kirito made her seriously consider it, if only so she could find him and make sure he was alright.

She turned her attention back away from his stats and to the fight to see, much to her pleasant surprise, that he had gotten Fionne down to his last health bar. Klein was at half of his own health, but did not look winded, in fact he looked fierce and powerful.

Then, with a trio of swift and powerful katana skills, Klein broke around Fionne's defence and ruined the rest of his health bar. Fionne did as he was programmed and began congratulating Klein for his victory before handing over the first key, as well as a promise of reward from his master, before he burst into particles with a borderline insane laugh.

After waiting a couple of seconds to make sure he did not die after winning, Sachi breathed a sigh of relief and then opened up a pair of panels. One showed the field area where her second knight was supposed to, and was now, standing. The other showed a customization screen with a specialized black and blue layout for creating the reward he would receive.

The game, or more accurately the Cardinal system, could make items on the fly, but Sachi had managed to convince Kayaba to create the rewards for her own quest on her own on a case by case basis. The reason she had given was so that players would not get useless items they could not use and so that she could make them powerful to help other players want to complete her quest and reach Dun-scaith. The real reason though was so that she could add flavour text to the reward items to try to insinuate and give hints even just vague ones.

She immediately began shaping the weapon and giving it stats that would be appropriate for it, even going so far as to give it some passive abilities, and making it unsellable. If it had been a normal player it would not have mattered, but this player knew Kirito, so she had to be sure that he would keep using the weapon so that Kirito could see it.

Right before she sent it, Sachi added am additional ability that was little more that a permanent watch on the items used, and sent it off with a message attached. Now all she had to do was wait for the other knights to be defeated, and for Kirito to discover the quest!

Xxxxx

"Hey, uh, Argo?" Klein asked as his guild, along with Argo, were walking back to the nearby town.

"Yeah?"

"You said it was odd that all I got was that key that you want me to use on that stone you found, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I just got a message from a sender I don't recognize."

"Well, you should only be able to receive mail from those on your friend list or from the Admin. Who is the sender?" Argo asked casually.

"Scathach, Queen of Dun-scaith," Klein said nervously, causing everyone to stop and look at him.

"Have ya opened it yet?" Argo asked after a second of staring at Klein.

"It has an attachment, and I just got it."

"Open it and read it out loud to me," Argo nearly demanded.

"Alright just give me a second," Klein said as he tapped the air in front of him a few times, opening the mail. "It says, Noble warrior, I commend you on your ability to best Fionne and in proving your worth. You have found the first key and once the rest are found you shall be guaranteed an audience. Until then, use this blade so that your soul does not become my property prematurely."

"Well, that's not worrying at all," one member of Fuurinkazan muttered sarcastically.

"Well it could be worse," Argo said with a shrug before looking back at Klein. "So, what's the attachment?"

"One second," klein said as he moved his fingers a bit, and a second later a long Nodachi appeared in his hands, its blade as dark as tar while its edge was a bright blue. "Its called, the Black Cats Tallfang and, wow, this thing has amazing stats! Better than anything I have, and it even has a five percent instant kill chance on mobs!"

"That, is dangerously good," Argo stated worryingly. "Is there anything else of note?"

"uh, yeah, it says that it is bound to me, so it can't be removed from my inventory or sold, and it has a section of lore text that looks, odd. It says, by this blade may the midnight black cats rest in piece and their vengeance be done. Does that sound familiar to you for some reason?"

"It does and I'll look into it. Can you meet me on the fifth floor tomorrow? I'd like to see if that ring you got connects to another quest."

"Yeah, okay? I'm curious about this now, especially if what that miniboss was saying could be true."

"Yeah, just don't let it get out for now. Until we know for sure, we keep this just between our people, alright?"

"Yeah, okay, fine. But if we find out they are speaking truthfully everyone needs to know."

"Don't worry, I agree with that idea. If it proves true, I'll be the first to start telling everyone on my contacts list!"


	5. Chapter 5

With a flash of particles a monster died, allowing Sachi to twirl he spear to the side and smirk at her own prowess. It had been a number of weeks since her first Dullahan miniboss had been defeated and since then four more had been as well. With their defeat and the equipment she sent to the victors it was now more than just a rumor in SAO, it was a full blown investigation by all the biggest guilds.

She knew this because every person that killed a Dullahan was automatically all added to her watchlist, allowing her to look where er they were at whim. Though Kayaba, playing as his character of Heathcliff, could not be watched for obvious reasons. She hadn't liked that he took on one of her bosses, but as he had told her after the fact, the weapons she made for the victors were very powerful and very worth acquiring. So she let it slide. Not that she had a choice in the matter.

Of course, spending all her immense free time stalking those who got her gifts was no good, as she already thought of it like borderline stalking, so after the second Dullahan had bitten the dust she had taken to wandering g the underworld around her castle. Both to get her mind off things, to explore, and to sharpen her spear skills and test her own Arts and abilities.

The underworld was populated by a variety of Mobs, all creatures from legend, but the most dangerous of these were the strongest and weakest. The strongest was the Bodach, a horrifically ugly undead creature with black skin and a huge gaping maw. It stopped players from passively or actively healing around it, and it had enough health and damage it could fight a front line player on their own for a time easily.

The other most dangerous creature of the underworld were called red caps, and were small Goblin like creatures wearing red caps that carried sickles. They had low health and damage, but their weapons caused a bleeding effect, and if they were not killed quickly they could, and would, call for more of them, allowing them to quickly overwhelm their foe with sheer numbers.

They were of course no problem for her as her skills and abilities made her far beyond them, but also because she was their lord and they would only attack her if she commanded it. As their lord she could even order them to fight each other to death or could even invade the rest of Aincrad if she wished, but that would not be proper. She was Scathach, a goddess of death, and her place was to watch over the souls of the lost and-

"No! That's not right!" Sachi screamed as she threw her spear at a nearby boulder, blowing it apart with a loud crash before she fell to her knees clutching her head in panic.

It had happened again. The more she trained or kept herself busy the more it was happening. She would partly forget who she was, what she was, what her purpose was. It was like acting as her position was making her more like it, and the idea of thinking she was some kind of goddess of death, and forgetting that she had been a human, was absolutely terrifying!

She needed to act her position and keep working on her quest to not be constantly monitored by Kayaba, as if she did a good job he seemed to give her more freedom, but the more she did the more she seemed to forget things, even if just for a few seconds.

"I, I need to calm down. The frontliners were going to have a meeting for how to defeat that floor boss today, yes that would be good. I know a few of my watches will be there, I should see what their plan is," Sachi muttered to herself as she began walking back towards her castle, eyes hollow with worry.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Sachi was absolutely Livid, which was a rare occurrence even before she had lost the body and been turned into an Electronic intelligence.

Klein was at the frontline meeting and was the only one with one of her weapons aside from heathcliff, but Kirito had been their as well! She had finally found him and knew that he was fine, and even found that he was still the same as he did not want to put the games NPCs in danger!

And then things got worse.

Some brunette who was a vice guild leader came around and began harassing his choices! Acting like she was all that, like those prissy girls from school! And then after a nap the two of them went off and started solving a crime of someone faking their death with a teleport crystal! She kept manipulating him into helping, and it even looked like she was getting feelings for him! She who didn't know anything about him, who was nothing more than a bitch!

And it got even worse when it was revealed that the real criminal was the man who had killed his own wife. Even worse, she had been his wife in real life, and she was dead because he didn't like her being a leader or helping people!

Or was she?

Sachi instantly began looking through the records of souls and sighed in relief at the sight of the womans name. And then her relief was overcome with rage.

"This, can't be allowed. I won't let it stand. I won't!" she roared as she began accessing commands that would transport her out of Dun-scaith and to Kirito's location.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In his office, Heathcliff let out a sigh. Things were going well for the most part, but the slow fight of the Geocrawler, and the frontlines being unable to find the floor boss, were annoying. Aside from that though , progress was being made, as it should have been.

Then he got a message and opened it, finding it from Cardinal.

Cardinal: Creator, Program Scathach is attempting to leave Dun-scaith. Program Scathach also shows signs of breakdown and potential insanity in human terms. Response?

Heathcliff let out a sigh as he brought up his administrators menu, locked his office, and made it so no one would be able to hear into his office even with skills. "Bring up time dilated video of her recent actions, and a second real time feed of her current actions, without her knowledge," Kayaba stated, his voice no longer modulated to match his player persona.

Immediately the panels appeared showing the video he requested, and it quickly became clear what was going on.

"Ah, being an AI, being alone with her thoughts, and perhaps working against the players, seems to be slowly eroding her sanity."

Cardinal: AI that go insane require reformatting. Confirm. Y/N ?

"No," Kayaba replied without pause. "I made a deal with her and so long as her humanity remains I will abide by it. Should she truly lose her sense of self and her humanity however, then she shall be reformatted for my purposes."

Cardinal: what of their attempts to access other sectors?

"Hmmm, let's see. She is intent on seeing her savior again, and while he's with another girl it could be dangerous but," Kayaba stopped as he noticed five cloaked figures being shown on the one screen, interrupting the would be hero. They were the guild of PKers that had begun causing problems. He immediately had a plan form and tapped his console, bringing up a video connection to his would be servant. "I see what you are doing Scathach, and I'm willing to let you go there if you do two things. You must progress your own quest in some way, And you must deal with those PKers as you feel required!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Kirito and Asuna stood their ground tensely as the five cloaked figures stood before them with blades in hand. They were the PK guild called laughing coffin that had been spoke of in rumors as of late, though rumors of their existence had been overshadowed by the rumors of the Dullahan and their supposed mistress, along with the accompanying rumor that some people may not have actually died when their HP had hit zero.

Little was known about the laughing coffin because of that, and that lack of information was now a danger as they were outnumbered and knew that those behind them would have no chance if the murderers before them got past them.

They took a step forward, brandishing their blades as two of them pulled out needles in their offhand.

"Are you sure about this, we have reinforcements coming to support us. We don't need to beat you, just hold you back," Kirito said arrogantly, though somehow Asuna could tell that he was lying through his teeth.

"We outnumber you, and unlike you who would feel remorse and restraint to killing others, we feel no such thing. Your allies will arrive to find no one here, as you all will be dead," one member of laughing coffin said with a chuckle as he licked the edge of his blade like a sociopath.

"We watch each others backs,"Kirito whispered seriously as he held his weapon up in a readied stance. "If they get behind us . . ."

"I know," Asuna replied as she held her Rapier ready, though she trembled slightly at both the idea of being killed, and at killing another player.

One of the killers took a step forward and grinned, his legs tensing before they would propel himself forward, but as he rocketed toward them sometime unimaginable happened. The air between the two groups seemed to scream and hiss as a heat haze enveloped the area, the very air seemed to be fraying at the seams, and a moment later it seemed to crystallize and reverberate before a black maw ripped open, and a person stepped out.

They were a girl of average height who looked to be in her late teens. Her body was thin but toned and while her hair was short and immaculate, her clothing and equipment were the most interesting. Her clothing was a mix of casual clothing and combat gear. Knee length shorts and a simple tank top, accented by a tabard over her front and back along with metal bracers and shin guards, as well as shoulder guards and metal guards on her hips. Her clothing and armour was all a dark blue in color except for the tabard which was black as pitch. Her weapon was a spear that looked like an old bone that had been twisted and stretched out into nearly six feet of barbed hatred and suffering that was a strange combination of the same black and blue. Her expression was cold and disconnected, and for some reason that Asuna could not understand, Kirito looked like he was frozen with fear or by some other emotion.

"Just another one for the chopping block!" the one killer declared as he threw a needle at the woman and then lunged at her.

Only for both the needle, and his blade, to bounce off her body harmlessly. She then smiled callously and swung her spear into the killer, impaling and lifting them into the air with an ease that seemed strange even considering SAO's systems.

"What, how, what are you!?" the killer yelled as he swung his sword at the womans face, the blade bouncing off of her skin and a purple pane appearing above reading, Immortal object.

"You are not worthy of clashing blades with me. You are barely worth the effort to capture," she declared as her spear began to glow before large spines began growing out of it, the killer still impaled on it, and his health starting to drop at a quickening speed.

"Get off me, get me off! I will not die!" the impaled killer roared in rage as he tried to struggle free.

"You are correct, you will not die," the woman declared before swinging her spear and slamming the killer to the ground, instantly killing him and making his body break into particles. Particles that were then claimed by a cage like most peoples. Then, instead of being dragged underground, the cage shrunk and began orbiting the woman who resumed a noble stance and turned to the other PKers. "None of you are worthy either. Leave before I claim your souls!"

Three of the four took steps back, while one merely stood his ground and sheathed his weapons. "Who, or what, are you?"

"I am the Queen of Dun-scaith and the Goddess of the underworld who claims the souls of those lost to battle, awaiting those who would come to free them from my grasp. I am Scathach, and I am above you!"

"I see, then I shall leave as well," the fourth killer said as he turned and walked off with his allies.

Silence reigned until the members of laughing coffin left, Scathach turning to look at Caynz and Yolko. "Inciting panic and chaos for revenge, you are not worthy," she stated before looking to Grimlock. "As a murderer you are not worthy either, even less so for killing the one you loved. When you die, know that you have no second chance. Only the void awaits you!" she declared coldly, making him try to step back in fear, though Asuna would not let him. Then Scathach turned her gaze to Kirito, passing over Asuna completely as her gaze softened slightly. "You however black warrior, you are worthy, more so than most. On the far opposite side of this floor you shall find Fergus, one of my knights. Defeat him and you shall have a weapon that shall equal your worth! And shall earn the right to challenge me yourself. I look forward to your challenge," Scathach wished as she turned, swung her spear to create a doorway, and then stepped in and disappeared.

The five of them stood there for a few moments, terrified and confused at what had just occurred until Kirito muttered something, catching Asuna's attention. "What was that Kirito?"

"That Boss monster, it looked just like her," Kirito mumbled a bit louder as he adopted a pose that showed he was trying to think about something hard.

"Like who?" Asuna asked, feeling a but worried by kirito's haunted expression.

"like Sachi, she looked just like her, sounded like her. But that shouldn't be possible, AI would have something off about them that makes it clear they are not people but she, sounded exactly like her, even with the forced speech."

"Wait, are you saying that was a player you know Kirito?" Asuna asked, shocked that a player would ally with the one who imprisoned them in SAO.

"No," Kirito said quietly, now looking like was on the verge of either crying, or screaming in rage. "It can't be Sachi, because I watched her die in front of me. And now a Boss monster is insulting her memory," Kirito said, his voice turning into a growl as anger won out over his grief. "I'll kill that mockery, and I'll make Kayaba pay!"

"Kirito!" Asuna suddenly called out mailing him flinch and turn to her.

"Uh, yes?" I know why you are angry, but we need to deal with them first and get out of this place. If That guild comes back . . ."

Kirito nodded in understanding. He'd get Kayaba back and defeat that mockery, but not yet. He had time.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"Cardinal how is our goddesses mental state now?" Kayaba asked from the security of his office as he watched Sachi roll around on her bed like a fangirl who had just met their idol. It was ridiculous, but better than how she had been acting previously.

Cardinal: Entity designate Scathach shows an unstable psyche, however the instability seems to have solidified for the moment.

"So seeing the target of her affection ,even while speaking as a perceived enemy, did good for her mind. Well I suppose that may change when she realizes how she is perceived in the future. And when that happens she will either break and be nothing but another program, or she will power through it and become a perfect example of a human turned Electronic intelligence. I shall look forward to whichever it is that comes to pass!"


End file.
